We sat motionless about the enemy bunker which was now the property of the Amarr militia. Lasers primed, missiles armed, tanks active, we were certain a reprisal was imminent. It wasn’t long until our patience was rewarded.

X0> “Hostile Fleet in local sir…”

NOXx> “I see, get me ship types please?”

X0> “Scanning…we have a fleet of Battle cruisers and a single Heavy Assault Cruiser…around 10 of them…they are at the gate…warping off now, arrival imminent.”

NOXx> “Okay gang, are you ready?”

B13> “Always.”

NOXx> “X0, follow them in after a few minutes, I want you to scan the ships for faction equipment. Okay, here we go. Stay tight and activate your remotes when called out.”

Seconds later the hostile fleet warped into our kill zone and we locked them. There were a few Gallente Battle cruisers, a Minmatar Heavy Assault Cruiser and several Minmatar Battle cruisers. I gave to order to primary the Heavy Assault Cruiser as it potentially had more DPS than the Battle cruisers.

The enemy fleet immediately locked us down and released an almighty salvo of projectile fire and a swarm of drones at my ship. My shields failed spectacularly and it wasn’t long before my armour tank was working overtime to repel the damage.

I sent out a signal indicating that my ship was in need of armour reinforcement. Within seconds our well trained fleet had locked my ship and was remote repairing my armour within a spider tank formation. After a few minutes it became clear however that our combined firepower was not enough to break the tank of the primary as he too was being repaired by his fleet.

Our ECM drones undocked and hurtled towards each one of the ships instantly jamming them and effectively removing the ships from the battlefield. The primary was no longer receiving repairs and his armour began to drop quickly.

As the structure of the battle cruiser burst there was a massive explosion of gas and fire as the hull decompressed violently ejecting the innards into the cold vacuum. Hundreds of corpses collided with various ships on the battlefield and made a soft thud against the hulls. The pilot was much more fortunate as his POD ejected from the explosion intact and he warped off.

With utmost efficiency the fleet switched targets and began to devour the shields of the Gallente Battle cruiser. B13 made a comment as he noticed the drones from the two Battle cruisers retreating back into their respective done bays.

Moments later there were tens of simultaneous explosions which danced around the two Gallente Drone Battle cruisers. Huge rings of energy span out from the ships expanding into space.

B13> “What the hell? Damn, they have smart bombs on-board. The ECM drones just bought it.”

NOXx> “Then we’ll have to find another way of taking out the remote reps. CT?”

CT> “I know what your thinking, firing up micro-warp drive.”

The sleek Amarr Battle cruisers’ engines swelled with energy and within moments the ship was propelled away from the battle. At around 30km the ship stopped, swung about and aimed for the primary. The Battle cruiser accelerated hard and slammed into the primary. The impact forced the ship sideways as it spun out from the battlefield outside the range of the enemy fleets spider tank. The beams stopped repairing his ship and he was left out in the cold.

At the same time our fleet switched primary weapons to long range crystals and fired a salvo of missiles at the stricken vessel which was left confused and spinning out of kilter. Impact after impact caused the ship to jolt and jump as the armour was reduced to molten metal shimmering on the surface, beads of liquid armour trickled out into space freezing instantly creating long spines. The ship finally imploded under the weight of its own structure.

As the battle continued a sole enemy ship separated itself from the field. It appeared to be heading for X0 who had uncloaked while he scanned the ships for us.

X0> “Shit, I’m being targeted. My cloak won’t engage!”

B13> “Get outta there X0!”

X0> “Too late…sorry…”

The tiny ship exploded almost as soon as it took fire from the rogue Battle cruiser. X0’s POD was jettisoned from the wreck and he warped off towards a safe area of space.

I was angered by the enemies’ shameless attempt to salvage something from the battle. I ordered our pilots to overload their weapons. The primary ship was obliterated as the fleet’s guns blazed hell into his superstructure. The explosion marked a turning point for the battle and two of the remaining ships ships turned tail and warped off.

Our fleets Warp Disruptors kicked into life and collapsed the warp fields of the remaining ships preventing their retreat. Only three Battle cruisers remained now against our fleet of four. Needless to say the battle did not last long.

The remaining enemy ships exploded in a fireworks display of blue and green, one after another as their tanks failed. Debris was strewn across the battlefield so much so it was becoming hard to navigate.

We celebrated our victory as we scooped up all the salvage we could hold, not forgetting X0’s wrecked Covert Ops vessel. The spoils were quite good, some faction equipment as well as lots of Tech II salvage. While we were picking through the battlefield a familiar voice crackled over the comms…

Hn> “Hey there boys? Did I miss anything?”

B13> “Ha, not much HN.”

NOXx> “Hiya HN. We need you to pilot this Raven outta here. Some poor soul left it here for us after we persuaded him with harsh laser fire.”

Hn> “Nice one. I’m on it.”

Hn approached the motionless Raven, left her rookie ship and docked with the Battleship. X0 too had recently turned up on the scene knowing the battle was over. He occupied the rookie ship and joined us in formation. With the bunker and Raven secured the fleet turned toward the star gate and warped…

X0> “Bunker located – we have a Raven on scan, probably securing the bunker.”

Our crew had been travelling systems in low security systems along the Minmatar Amarr border. Our mission? To secure and control all the bunkers along the battle front. Our Covert Ops pilot, X0 had located a positive signal with his scan probes and to our surprise the Raven pilot had decided not to abandon his mission and seek a safe harbour despite our presence in local.

X0> “Okay, he’s definitely within the complex. Long range scans are picking up drones, wrecks and some militia.”

Our militia fleet of Amarr Battle cruisers slowly swung round to align with the bunker. After a few moments our gang was propelled into warp.

X0> “Target still on scan…”

NOXx> “Warp field collapse in 5 seconds…”

The small fleet sliced its way across millions of kilometres of empty space before finally coming to rest in a small gas cloud littered with wrecks and debris. The area of space we found ourselves in was densely populated with militia wrecks, twisted metal smoked and smouldered in the cold vacuum of space. The gas giant nearby had shed some of it’s gas in a cataclysmic collision with one of it’s moons causing a huge spiral of red gas to billow from it’s surface. The gas here was thick and inert and hardly any light from the systems star was able to penetrate. It was an ideal hiding place, used as a holding area for the Minmatar militia. B13 had noticed something hidden within the gloom. He zoomed his camera drones to decipher the image in his mind. Its form was unmistakeable, it was the Raven.

The propulsion systems of each pirate ship fired up and swelled with plasma as the fleet moved forward at best speed towards the enemy ship.

Moments later the ship turned and started to target our group. We responded in kind and soon a swarm of attack drones swamped his ship. Our fleets first salvo hit his re-enforced shields. XA, meanwhile scanned his ship for on-board cargo and modules.

A wave of Faction missiles struck into my ship almost completely obliterating the shield. Huge eccentric rings of plasma and static flowed into space around my ship as the shields gave way. Another salvo struck seconds later, this pilot knew how to use missiles proficiently. This time the Amarr Navy Armour held its ground and gave nothing away to the missiles fury. My heavy lasers continued to attack the Ravens shields firing a burst every second.

The massive Battleship lurched forwards as our combined firepower overwhelmed the stabilisers and jolted the ship. The shields crackled and faded slowly and we could see clearly that his faction tank was no match for the onslaught.

Without any shields and without a proper armour tank the mighty ship began to fail. We could see huge chunks of red hot armour peeling off his ship into space as our attack continued relentlessly. Eventually his armour broke and a massive explosion tore at the aft of the ship. The superstructure was clearly visible and flames and gas spewed forth from the wound. Our weapons stopped firing and gave way to silence. I could hear my laser turrets loudly snapping and cracking as they cooled momentarily while I initiated contact with our prey who had also ceased firing, knowing that it was a waste of ammunition.

I opened a comms with the Raven pilot to bargain for his ship and his life but there was no response, instead the pilot ejected from his ship and warped almost instantly into the distance towards a star gate. His ship was left motionless, smoking from the intense heat it had absorbed but still intact.

Our fleet moved themselves between the bunker and the Raven ensuring optimal ranges terminated on the warp beacon. There we sat holding the bunker, guns ready and expecting reprisal…

This Hurricane fit is widely used and is basically a buffer tank with lots of DPS (damage per second). It is built for one purpose; to track, trap and kill the target quickly. Once your prey is Webbed and Disrupted, orbit at just under 10km and attack en-masse.

Use ECM drones to help avoid any defensive attacks from the target and pulse the Micro-warp drive if too much damage is taken too often. The fit does depend on the type of targets you will engage. Drone boats and missile ships can be a problem, but anything with tracking turrets doesn't last very long at all.

The fit is also quite cheap therefore if it's lost it is easily replaced. I would not recommend rigging the ship, this can give another 10,000hp which helps with the survivability but it is not cost effective if you lose the ship.

If you want more DPS you can swap the ECM drones for Hobgoblin II's which pump it up to over 500 DPS. With the twin Webifiers, the accuracy of your guns is vastly improved; you will get better hits more often which helps speed things up so you can ransom your target then retreat before re-enforcements arrive.

The fit also works quite well fitting Tech I equipment if your skills aren't quite up to scratch yet but I would always recommend using only Tech I or Tech II instead of 'Best Named' modules as these are also expensive and chances are you will not win every fight.